Judas Priest guitarist Glenn Tipton has posted the following message at the band’s official website:
“By now many of you will know I won’t be doing the forthcoming Judas Priest tour because of health issues—I’m so sorry but four years ago I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s and was told by my specialist that I had already had it for over ten years – I knew something was wrong with my co-ordination and fluency regarding my playing but I worked around it and battled on – I have good days and bad days but the disease is degenerative and I would never want to compromise the greatest metal band in the world—it was therefore during the last rehearsals I decided to step down and have Andy Sneap fill in—he’s a great guy and I’m sure he’ll do a great job – I’m sure the band will be as strong than ever
I have been overwhelmed by the massive support and love I’ve had from other artists and from fans all over the world and from many friends and metal maniacs out there – it’s not the end for me – I’ll still be able to write and record and on good days even join the band on stage for a few songs – with new medication and advances being made who knows what the future holds – but one thing’s for sure – it will certainly involve Priest!
Finally the biggest thanks goes to Rob, Richie, Ian and Scott who have stood by me and supported me through everything – GLENN”
Judas Priest released their latest album, Firepower on March 9th and launched their North American tour last night (March 13th) in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania.
10 Responses
Glenn, you not being onstage with priest compromises the band , that being said , i do hope the advances in medicine help you through this- you and kk and ian created and refined the priest sound ,
and rob painted over your canvass like a master – i wish you only the best-
If Paul Stanley were in Judas Priest, I know exactly what would be happening right now.
Robert Davenport, the only compromise is whether you (we) accept Glenn not being there on stage. I saw them opening night and as strange as it was not seeing Glenn, it still felt good to have the band up there carrying on (as per Glenn’s wishes) ripping up the stage in Judas Priest style, like no one else can. I, for one, completely accept Priest carrying on and tearing up stages around the world.
Greg,
the jury is still out for me , i watched the opening show on youtube , found a high quality clip ran my sub with it and they sounded damn good – Halford sounded great i was really surprised – something was not quite right with the guitars , for me it was missing kk and glenn’s unique style of playing together – of the songs that i have heard on the new album the only one i like is spectre- in the mix everything is turned up loud as hell there is no dynamics at all – i hope priest has a very successful tour and glenn feels well enough to play a few shows /songs – i may see them if they come to my neck of the woods-
This is not a dig on Faulkner, who is doing a bang up job covering both KK and Glenn’s solos now, but he had to two hand tap part of Glenn’s solo in “Painkiller” where Glenn did it with just his left hand. 🙂
Glenn still is ridiculously underrated.